If the bribery problem is kept under control - and with the current state of campaign finance, it is not - lobbyists can be a very useful and valuable part of the government. They can make very expensive expertise and consultation available to our government, which is tremendously valuable in helping our lawmakers not fark everything they touch up. BUT the bribery issue needs to be fixed, and there needs to be lobbyists on both sides to provide balance (which is why I kick folks like the EFF and NRDC a few bucks).

Surpheon:If the bribery problem is kept under control - and with the current state of campaign finance, it is not - lobbyists can be a very useful and valuable part of the government. They can make very expensive expertise and consultation available to our government, which is tremendously valuable in helping our lawmakers not fark everything they touch up. BUT the bribery issue needs to be fixed, and there needs to be lobbyists on both sides to provide balance (which is why I kick folks like the EFF and NRDC a few bucks).

Call me crazy but when elected officials are listening to anyone other than the people who elected them and are doing anything other than representing their voters, they're not doing their job. An elected official having to pay attention to and be potentially swayed by a lobbyist or lobby group from another state is, in principle, a conflict of interest. Washington lobbies are run by and in favor of big business, who have practically zero votes yet seem to win every election and every vote on a floor, until they'rea) battling with each other orb) represent obvious losses, such as the tobacco lobby being in favor of cancer (though you can dispute the involvement of the insurance lobby).

Peter von Nostrand:I do prefer their designated lobbyist rule. I know the purists hate it but they'll get over it

Oh, it's you, one of those. I guess you're fine with lobbyists having to wear helmets, too? Let me tell you, the lobbyists who bought Warren Harding NEVER would have lowered themselves to the kind of pansy-ass safeguards they make a lobbyist go through today!

EyeballKid:Peter von Nostrand: I do prefer their designated lobbyist rule. I know the purists hate it but they'll get over it

Oh, it's you, one of those. I guess you're fine with lobbyists having to wear helmets, too? Let me tell you, the lobbyists who bought Warren Harding NEVER would have lowered themselves to the kind of pansy-ass safeguards they make a lobbyist go through today!

I do have a problem with that. I preferred it when lobbyists did their job powered by booze and hot dogs

EyeballKid:Peter von Nostrand: I do prefer their designated lobbyist rule. I know the purists hate it but they'll get over it

Oh, it's you, one of those. I guess you're fine with lobbyists having to wear helmets, too? Let me tell you, the lobbyists who bought Warren Harding NEVER would have lowered themselves to the kind of pansy-ass safeguards they make a lobbyist go through today!

Why in my day if we wanted to get dirt in a congressman we had to follow him* around the clock, big his office and home phones, bribe his friends and family, and occasionally resort to larceny.

Now you damn whippersnappers just follow them on twitter and wait. Lazy buncha soandsos.

*Him. There may have been women in congress I don't remember. In my day they were just useful for getting coffee and voting along with the men.

To be fair, there's nothing inherently wrong with groups of people banding together to make their voices heard to politicians based on common beliefs and concerns. There are lots of lobbyists out there pushing for perfectly sensible things.

snocone:I strongly suggest, in the most sincere vein, make them extinct.

Lobbyists are the root cause of why we cannot have a nice country.

To be fair, lobbying is a good thing sometimes. We need people who go to the capitol and point out that, hey, minorities have rights, or hey, poor people need Medicare. We just need to make sure they're not bribing people to do that.

mizchief:PsiChick: snocone: I strongly suggest, in the most sincere vein, make them extinct.

Lobbyists are the root cause of why we cannot have a nice country.

To be fair, lobbying is a good thing sometimes. We need people who go to the capitol and point out that, hey, minorities have rights, or hey, poor people need Medicare. We just need to make sure they're not bribing people to do that.

Those people are called voters.

And if a sociopath or asshole accidentally gets elected in, voters aren't always enough.

• The gambling industry has tried to change its name to the "gaming" industry.• Prostitutes want to be called "sex workers."• Lobbyists want to be called something that doesn't elicit images of political corruption and cronyism.